God of Cooking

“Why did you call me?”

“I heard that you were eliminated from the final rounds. So, I called you to comfort you, but it seems you don’t like it.”

“Well, you and I are not close enough to give and receive comfort between us, right?”

“Oh, I just felt I was close enough to say something to comfort you the moment I called you.”

Janet didn’t like the relaxed voice of the other person over the phone. As if she felt the person was trying to act conceited, she once again took the wine glass to her mouth. But even though the glass was already touching her lips, she couldn’t drink the whiskey easily.

So, she slowly put down the glass and opened her mouth.

“What do you want to say to me?”

“I know this competition was pretty important to all the demi chefs who participated, right?”

“That’s right. But I’m not sure what has made you contact me like this, Chef June.”

“Because I know what you’re thinking about by now. You lost confidence, right? I mean the confidence, you can make it.”

When June said that, Janet grabbed her phone hard. June was really good at reading her mind. As she said, that was what bothered Janet the most right now. She wasn’t just tired. She felt if she worked really hard, one day she would see the fruits of her efforts. Maybe it was more of her wishes than her conviction. So, she was always avoiding looking into that possibility seriously because she was not ready to suffer that disappointment or frustration if she knew that she would not be rewarded for her toil and sweat.

Today, however, she was almost forced to face the truth, something that always coiled her body like a snake darting in and out her tongue, stuck to her cheeks. So, she tried to avoid such a situation as much as possible. Janet’s eyes turned cold.

“Do you want to make fun of me, or do you want to comfort me?”

“Well, I am not free enough to call to make fun of you. To use your expression, we’re not that close enough to do so between us.”

“Then, why did you call me?”

“Well, I just want to comfort and cheer for you. I also have something to tell you.”

“Something to tell me?”

Janet had no choice but to pay attention to that word. She heard June chuckling a bit over the phone, so she made a frown.

As if June saw her frowning, June said, ” Listen to me without frowning like that. In fact, what I want to say is a sort of advice on what kind of path you can choose.”

“Yeah, I’m listening.”

“Don’t give up!”

When June said that all of a sudden, Janet couldn’t understand what the hell she was talking about. She thought June didn’t mention it with the Paris cooking contest in mind because she was always eliminated from the final round. Then, was it her dream as a chef that June wanted to talk about? That didn’t make any sense, either, because she would never give up such a dream.

Janet thought for a moment then opened her mouth in a quiet voice.

“Do you mean I should be the best chef?”

June replied, “Well, what you said is half right and half wrong. It depends on what you think is the best. I guess you want to get ahead of others like Min-joon without falling behind in any field, right”

“Well, isn’t it natural? Min-joon is a demi chef working right next to me. He’s my colleague and my rival. I can’t talk about the next thing when I can’t get ahead of someone right next to me, right?”

“You are foolishly honest, and you have no vision. You still think that the best merit of a chef is just cooking.”

“If a chef has a merit in other fields than cooking, isn’t he or she weirder?”

“Being versatile in any field is a chef’s merit in any situation. Think realistically. Do you think you can beat Min-joon by cooking well?”

“Did you call me to comfort and cheer for me like you said?”

“Let me tell you something. I couldn’t beat Chef Dave. Even Chef Rachel couldn’t surpass Chef Daniel. So, I focused on something else such as the interior of the restaurant, the class of the customers visiting my restaurant, the quality of ingredients, and the reputation of my restaurant in New York. I read literature and learned about arts as much as I honed in on my cooking skills so that when people ate my food, they could think of eating dishes made by a chef of high quality and culture.”

Janet couldn’t give any reply to that. My lifelong conviction that just cooking alone would do was shaken by June’s remarks. Actually, June resembled Janet a lot and rose to a position that commanded everybody’s respect. That was why the words of someone who was as successful as June made an impact on others.

“Focusing only on cooking is good. If you’re like Min-joon, that’s a good option because you have the required skills and talent. But there are chefs who don’t have them. I mean those who don’t have any shining inspiration or terrific senses of taste. So, it’s not sincere to keep clinging to what you don’t have. It’s stupid and lazy.”

“So, what do you want me to do?”

“Increase your value. Get the attention of Chef Rachel. You might be able to receive her love if you haven’t yet. Chef Rachel has become very emotional these days.”

“Then, what are you going to get if I do so?”

“Well, I would say it’s vicarious satisfaction. Since I was not a good student of Rachel’s, I just hope someone who resembled me could stand by her. I think that would be quite meaningful to me. I’ll look forward to you, and I’ll support you like the new sous chef of Rose Island’s main restaurant.”

She hung up the phone then. Janet stayed still for a while with the phone in one hand and the glass in the other. When Anderson came back, she stood up from her seat.

He looked at her, embarrassed, and said, “What the heck? What’s the matter?”

“Let’s go to our hotel.”

“You haven’t finished your drink, yet.”

“You are the one who told me not to get drunk, right?”

“Yeah, that’s right, but...”

“I don’t want to repeat what I said.”

Having said that, she picked up her bag.

She muttered while he was following him, shaking his head.

“Raising my worth?”

***

In the meantime, only Havier or Janet could take over the temporary position of the sous chef proposed by Brandon. Min-joon and the others had to compete again in the final round, so it was too inefficient for Brandon to have someone else take over the sous chef position.

Janet declined that offer, though. She got on the plane to America right away. It seemed that she wanted to sort out her complicated thoughts after going back, but nobody knew what she was thinking of because it was almost impossible to read her mind.

And Min-joon and the others delayed their departure to America. At first, they didn’t think they would survive up to the quarterfinals, so they booked the tickets with their return date coming rather early than late. And their return date on the tickets was already around the corner.

Chloe muttered in a vague voice, “I just wonder how we have survived until now.”

“Why? Are you that amazed by it?”

“We’re amateurs. Oh, let me rule out Anderson and Min-joon, but Kaya and I don’t have a restaurant experience. Well, Kaya worked at a restaurant, even if she did for an event, but I spent my time at a broadcasting company. So, I’m really surprised to see myself competing with these experienced chefs here.”

“I agree,” Min-joon nodded, agreeing with her.

In fact, he himself could not believe it. There were many experienced chefs with cooking level 8 and even cooking level 9 in this contest, but Min-joon, Kaya, Anderson, and Chloe advanced to the quarterfinals, now waiting for the final round.

‘In my case, the synergy effect of me and Kaya must have played a big role, but...’

Min-joon wondered what made Anderson and Chloe survive until now. As Chloe said, she was an amateur without any doubt. No matter how competent Anderson was, he could not have survived with his own skills.

So, Min-joon looked into Chloe’s level.

[Chloe Chung]

Cooking Level: 7

Baking Level: 6

Gastronomy Level: 8

Decoration Level: 7

‘Her cooking level is still 7.’

Maybe she was close to 8, but it was clear that she got a better score than everybody thought.

Anderson’s specialty was Western food while Chloe’s strength was cooking Asian food, including Chinese. It seemed that while Kaya and Min-joon maximized each other’s cooking merit, Anderson and Chloe made up for each other’s shortcomings.

Min-joon checked his own cooking level. More precisely, he recalled the conditions for upgrading his level. The conditions for him achieving cooking level 9 was his kitchen leadership and sensational cuisine, while the condition for his gastronomic level was a cosmopolitan view of cuisine. He felt it would be difficult for him to develop kitchen leadership skills properly until he took over the sous chef position, so what was left was his sensational cuisine and cosmopolitan gastronomic perception.

‘I feel like I would focus more on the gastronomic perception.’

At that moment, Anderson entered the living room with a frown.

“What’s up? Why did you get shit-faced?”

“You know what? The so-called French “adult supervisors” are talking bullsh*t.”

“Who are they, and what are they talking about?”

Anderson turned on the TV instead of answering. Soon there was a scene of quite a few people protesting in front of the Paris International Cooking Contest venue with something like a placard. Min-joon’s face stiffened at that. He couldn’t understand the French subtitles, but he could recognize some of the English written on the placards.

Anderson opened his mouth with a trembling voice as if he was upset.

“They want us, American chefs, to go back instead of disgracing the Paris contest. They are also making a strong protest against the judges, too, arguing that they are not qualified to judge because their tongues are accustomed to American cuisines. They even want them to stop evaluating anymore.”

“Man, they are like human scums!”

“You bet. They don’t know they are disgracing this contest and even their country.”

Stunned at the protestors outside the venue, Min-joon couldn’t even say anything.

It was true that many French didn’t just happily accept the fact that Americans were doing better than French chefs, but such protests were really rude.

To be honest, it was something Min-joon couldn’t even imagine. Of course, the protestors must be silly old-fashioned French men, but their protests were shocking.

“Looks like they need a sound beating before coming to their senses,” said Kaya, watching the monitor with a murderous glance.

Min-joon grabbed her nervously.

“Don’t ever think of confronting them. Got it?”

“No, I won’t. I’m not childish.”

“Oh my God... something is happening everyday.”

He shook his head as if he was frustrated.

Watching him, Kaya stared at the protestors seriously on TV.

‘You guys are going too far.’

She really got angry.